Waiting for Accolades: Good Service, Good Credit

In "From Here to Gratuity" (Food & Drink, May 7), Joseph Cates focused on the service and particularly the quality of one server, writing: "This city has thousands of professional servers and perhaps a dozen standouts." Thank you!

This has been my beef with Richmond for years. Working as a server and manager in the area, I have always struggled with my colleagues. The lazy attitude of Richmond is ever prevalent in restaurant service. The only quality server in the area that I respected left for Chicago years ago.

Anticipating guest needs is virtually unheard of and doing as little as possible to just get by tends to be the modus operandi.

Avoiding eye contact, speaking to guests while walking away from the table and becoming too comfortable with guests are the norm. Without breaking bad habits like these, restaurant managers cannot address basic serving points such as reaching across guests, auctioning off food orders tableside and using the appropriate arm to serve or clear plates. With all of this said, this lazy attitude is what I love about Richmond.

This town is so laid-back and comfortable. I found myself drawn to the area and I can't stay away. I've traveled the globe, and no matter where I go, I find myself thinking, "You know, Richmond isn't so bad." The slow pace is a stress relief. However, as Richmonders, we must be careful not to allow our laziness to effect our environment.

A call to all Richmonders: Reduce, reuse, recycle! Preserve the beauty of our city, get up off your lazy butts and do what it takes to keep our beautiful city a shimmering jewel. If we manage to do this, I can accept crappy service. And God bless that server at Arianna's ... may we find more quality servers throughout the city.

Ron StradoneBellevue

Waiting on tables can be a difficult way to earn a living. I was glad to see that Joseph Cates chose to give well-deserved credit to the server in his review of Arianna's The unique people you meet in city neighborhood eateries is one of the things that sets them apart from the cookie cutter West End.

W. Henry WinstonRichmond

Editors' note: Let us go one step further. We should credit the server at Arianna's praised by our critic. Thanks to Ashley Neugeschwender.